Block, Robinhood, Coinbase Lawyers Among Fintech’s Highest Paid (1)

Robinhood Markets Inc., Coinbase Global Inc. and Block Inc. made their chief legal officers among some of the highest paid in the financial industry last year as the companies tackle a range of legal and regulatory issues.

Robinhood’s legal, compliance and corporate officer Daniel Gallagher Jr., hired in 2020 after working for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, received nearly $15.1 million in total compensation last year, the company said in its proxy filing.

Coinbase’s chief legal officer and corporate secretary, Paul Grewal, received nearly $7.5 million in total compensation during 2022, the proxy showed. Sivan Whiteley, most recently Block’s top lawyer and corporate secretary, had a pay package valued at $8.3 million before she left this year.

All three financial technology companies have relied on their legal department heads to help them navigate difficult issues.

Robinhood last month agreed to pay up to $10.2 million to settle an investigation into outages at the stock trading platform. Coinbase is preparing for a potentially lengthy battle with the SEC over enforcement. Block has denied a card merchant’s accusation that it helped fraudsters through compliance failures among some subsidiaries.

In-house lawyers in banking and financial services are the highest paid in the corporate world, followed by those in tax and energy, said a compensation analysis released Monday by legal consulting firm BarkerGilmore LLC.

Block tapped Christine “Chrysty” Esperanza, a former general counsel for the company’s Square business, to succeed Whiteley in mid-February as chief legal officer — an appointment that is no longer interim, according to Block’s attorney.

Esperanza is identified as head of legal, regulatory, public policy and communications, compliance and security affairs at the company, according to Block’s website. A spokeswoman for Block did not respond to a request for comment.

Block

Block, known as Square at the time it went public in late 2015, saw founder Jack Dorsey’s net worth plummet in the wake of a report released by Hindenburg Research LLC. The short seller, no stranger to taking on business titans, focused his criticism on Block’s Cash App and Afterpay devices.

Hindenburg claims that the blockchain companies have engaged in questionable practices and increased the number of users. Whiteley left the Block a month before Hindenburg made his claims public. In a LinkedIn post announcing her departure in January after a decade with the company, Whiteley said she is taking a year off.

Alexander Bean, who resigned last year as Afterpay’s general counsel, and Crissy Solh, hired by Block last year as the first-ever general counsel for the Cash App, did not respond to requests for comment.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and King & Wood Mallesons advised Block, then called Square, on its $29 billion purchase of Afterpay, a deal that closed in early 2022.

Whiteley has sold about $650,500 in block shares since then, according to securities filings. Block’s most recent proxy said she received more than $7.8 million in stock awards and about $519,000 in base salary last year. Whiteley currently owns $6.4 million in Block shares, according to Bloomberg data.

LegalZoom.com Inc., a legal technology company that added Whiteley to its board in 2022, disclosed in a separate proxy filed last week that she received $488,000 in total compensation last year.

Block’s legal department has long been a hotbed of legal talent.

Former general counsel Dana Wagner, who left in 2016, just earned a $26 million payday as a top lawyer at Twilio Inc. Sydney Schaub, a former general counsel at Square with Whiteley, was hired last year as chief legal officer of Opendoor Technologies Inc. . The home buying company revealed in its proxy that Schaub earned $4.8 million in 2022.

Whiteley took over as Block’s top lawyer in 2018 after the resignation of Hillary Smith, who stepped aside after more than a year in the role.

Coin base

Bloomberg Law reported that Coinbase has retained lawsuits from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Sullivan & Cromwell as the largest U.S. cryptocurrency platform begins a battle to prevent the SEC from restricting its business.

Grewal said in a publicly released video with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong last week that the company will “defend itself, vigorously, in litigation if it comes to that. But it doesn’t have to come to that.”

Coinbase responded to the SEC’s stated intention to initiate an enforcement case against the company over its crypto-related tokens and products.

Grewal, a former U.S. Magistrate Judge who joined Coinbase in mid-2020, saw his pay package last year consist of roughly $730,000 in base salary and more than $6.7 million in stock and option awards.

His compensation was a significant increase from the $712,000 Grewal earned in 2021 — almost all of it in cash — and less than half of the $18 million he was awarded in 2020 after Coinbase went public.

Coinbase expanded its legal team after the direct listing, although that team was not spared this year with a 20% reduction in force at the company.

Grewal has sold more than $821,000 in Coinbase shares over the past year, according to securities filings. Bloomberg data shows he currently owns $3.4 million in the company’s stock.

Robin Hood

Gallagher, a former partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, was initially appointed to Robinhood’s board in 2019. The company gave Gallagher a $30.1 million pay package after it went public two years later.

Robinhood’s latest proxy reveals that Gallagher received $550,000 in base salary last year in addition to nearly $14.9 million in stock awards. He currently owns $3.8 million in Robinhood stock, according to Bloomberg data.

In recent years, Gallagher has been busy sparring with his former colleagues at the SEC, while also working to overhaul the company’s in-house legal team.

Robinhood made headlines last year for hiring a former Cooley employee who Elon Musk allegedly tried to have fired from the law firm.

Last month, Robinhood also recruited K. Braeden Anderson — a former college basketball player who went on to work as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin — as assistant general counsel for regulatory affairs in Washington.

Janet Broeckel, a former head of litigation at Robinhood, was named general counsel this year for Major League Pickleball.